Review - Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

Author - Emmy Laybourne
Publisher - Feiwel & Friends
Release Date - June 5th, 2012, 294 Pages

Your mother hollers that you’re going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don’t stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don’t thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not—you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.Only, if it’s the last time you’ll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you’d stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.
Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong. 

In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

                             *A review copy was provided by the publisher for honest review*

Monument 14 starts out action packed and gets your heart racing with what is happening to the characters. It is told from a males perspective which I really enjoyed seeing most of everything I’ve read lately has been from a females point of view. Dean, our main character, starts his day off like any other and then it all goes downhill from there, and quickly! Hail storms, earthquakes, bus crashes, death and driving through a store, is what we are met with. I really enjoyed the first couple chapters but after that, it’s as if they settled into the superstore and goofed off pretty much until the ending.

Among himself he is trapped in the superstore with thirteen other kids, one of them being his little brother, Alex. They try to make do with what they have – and that’s a whole lot seeing they are in a superstore. I really didn’t feel connected to any of the characters and to me it didn’t seem that they were under that much stress seeing what they were going through. I will say this…I wanted to slap Dean, a lot! I wish he had more of a backbone then he did but maybe that’s just me.

Now, it may seem that I disliked this book and that’s not the case, I did enjoy it but didn’t fall head-over-hills for it either. I loved what Emmy created when she set certain reactions based off your blood type, honestly it made me wonder if this were to really happen…what the hell is my blood type? There are definitely some scenes to get your blood pumping. The ending left me wanting more so I’ll definitely check out the next installment when it’s released. Besides me not really connecting with the characters I still did find this entertaining and everyone has different opinions, you may be one that loves it so check it out if you get the chance.

-Shellie